The present disclosure relates to a method of fabricating a magnetic memory device, and more particularly, to a method of fabricating a magnetic memory device including a magnetic tunnel junction pattern.
As electronic devices trend toward high speed and lower power consumption, demands for semiconductor memory devices having high-speed read/write operations and low operating voltages characteristics have been increasing. In order to meet these demands, magnetic memory devices have been proposed as semiconductor memory devices. Since magnetic memory devices may operate at high speed and have nonvolatile characteristics, their popularities as being the next generation of memory devices have been increasing.
A magnetic memory device is a memory device using a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ). The magnetic tunnel junction may include two magnetic layers and an insulation layer interposed therebetween, and the resistance of the magnetic tunnel junction may vary depending on magnetization directions of the two magnetic layers. Specifically, the magnetic tunnel junction may have a relatively high resistance when the magnetization directions of the two magnetic layers are anti-parallel to each other, and may have a relatively low resistance when the magnetization directions of the two magnetic layers are parallel to each other. The magnetic memory device may write/read data using the resistance difference of the magnetic tunnel junction.
In particular, a spin transfer torque magnetic random access memory (STT-MRAM) device is becoming popular as a high-integrated memory device due to its characteristics where write current decreases with decreasing of a size of magnetic cells.